TAKING A GOOD LOOK AT SOME ALASKAN GLACIERS (and one other) Gibbworld Home Page      Global Warming Page        My Parents' Slides

These are some pictures that I took of several glaciers during a trip to Alaska during June of 2007.  All except one of the glaciers, St. Mary's, which is in Colorado, so it would have been a little hard to see it from Alaska.

KAHILTNA GLACIER This glacier is near Mt. McKinley (Denali), and I saw it from a small plane out of Talkeetna, AK.  Those people at the Talkeetna Air Taxi (and, I am sure, the other flying services in the area) can really fly through those mountains.  Click for pictures and more information...

By the way, I am not trying to sell anything.  So if you have some use for any of these pictures, feel free to take and use them. HERE ARE THE SPECIAL FEATURES AND EXTRAS (CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSIONS):

EXIT GLACIER If you would like to find the nice, friendly glacier next door with no need of a boat or plane, try Exit Glacier.  It is right next door to the town of Seward Alaska with an actual road leading to it.  Well, OK, you are going to need a boat or plane to get to Seward in the first place (or take a VERY long drive).  But when you get there, just hop on over next door to the glacier.  Click here for pictures and more information...

HUBBARD GLACIER Here is a glacier that caused two of the largest floods in the last 10,000 years.  In each case dam broke releasing a lake that was 80 feet tall the first time and about 60 feet tall the second time.  But nobody was in the way.  This is all related to the fact that this glacier is advancing while most glaciers are retreating.  But there are reasons for this.  Click here for pictures and more information...

IN THE KAHILTNA GLACIER PAGE, THERE ARE PICTURES FROM THE AIR, BUT I DIDN'T SHOW THE LANDING.  HERE IS KAHILTNA FROM OUR PLANE.

MARGERIE GLACIER What a show this one put on for me and all of the other eager tourists on the MS Statendam.  Often the ice in a glacier ends its ride by "calving" -- breaking off and falling.  You never know when you are going to see this, but Margerie put on a heck of a show while we were there.  Click here for pictures and more information...

AS WE FLEW OVER THE LANDING AREA, WE SAW A PLANE ALREADY LANDED AND LITTLE, TINY PEOPLE AROUND IT.  SOMEONE SEEMS TO HAVE WANDERED AWAY, WHICH THEY TOLD US NOT TO DO.

MEADE GLACIER Well, I just went nuts at this glacier.  I got into a helicopter, flew to the glacier and landed.  Oh, OK, I didn't fly it.  An experienced pilot did that.  But in the 40 or so minutes I had on the glacier, I learned a lot.  Click here for pictures and more information...

WE LANDED ON A SNOWY AREA TO THE SIDE OF KAHILTNA GLACIER, FLOWN THERE BY THE TALKEETNA AIR TAXI PEOPLE.

MENDENHALL GLACIER Here is another one that you can reach by car or bus  because there is an actual road that runs out there.  Out there from Juneau, Alaska, that is, a town that you need to reach by plane or ship.  There are many indications that this glacier has been retreating.   Click for pictures and more information...

SEE THE PLANE WAY OUT THERE TAKING OFF?  THE SKI PLANES HAD TO ACCELERATE DOWN THAT SLOPE AND TAKE OFF BEFORE THE EDGE.

NORTHWESTERN GLACIER This one one of the "tidewater" glaciers -- they end in  places that have tides.  This is the kind that can calve, that is lose mass by having big pieces fall off into the water.  It is very spectacular and makes a roar something like thunder.  Although this did not put on the same show that Margerie did for me, I got to see one big ice avalanche anyway.  Click here for pictures and more information...

THIS IS A DIFFERENT PLANE TRIP.  IT IS A SEA PLANE OUT OF JUNEAU EXPLORING SOME OF THE GLACIERS IN THE NEXT FJORD TO THE WEST .

COLLEGE FJORD Here is a place in Alaska, just off of Prince William Sound, with many glaciers.  It is called College Fjord, so named by an expedition organized by one E. H. Harriman in 1899.  Harriman also named the glaciers there mainly after famous Eastern United States Colleges.  Now most of them are in retreat, with at least one prominent exception.  College Fjord is a popular destination for Cruise ships including the one I rode up to Alaska on (the Holland America Line's Statendam).  By the way, a fjord (also spelled "fiord")  is an inlet from the sea among mountains where it can be ringed by cliffs. Although the dictionary is satisfied with that, technically a fjord is also something carved by a glacier.  Click here for pictures and more information...

ONE OF THOSE IS TAKU GLACIER, AND HERE WE ARE FLYING OVER IT,

ST. MARY'S GLACIER (COLORADO) Here is my only personal set of "before and after" pictures showing the shrinking of a glacier over time.  It was a little hard to take such a set of pictures on one trip to Alaska.  I didn't set out to do that at St. Mary's either, and the second picture is not exactly from the same spot as the first.  It takes a heckofa hike (for me at least -- not for some of these Colorado types in disgustingly good condition) to get there, so I didn't know I was going there on that second trip.  That is my excuse for not bringing the earlier picture with me to get the position right.  Anyway, click for pictures and more information...

ANOTHER IS WEST TWIN GLACIER, AND HERE IT COMES TUMBLING DOWN FROM THE HEIGHTS OF THE JUNEAU ICE FIELD.

YOU HAVE HEARD OF A WATERFALL?  WELL, HERE IS AN ICEFALL.  SAME KIND OF THING, BUT THIS IS ICE TUMBLING OVER A STEEP SPOT IN THE MOUNTAIN.  AT A GLACIAL PACE, OF COURSE.  THIS IS PART OF WEST TWIN GLACIER.

SOME LINKS TO OTHER GLACIER INFORMATION, OTHER BEFORE AND AFTER GLACIER PICTURES, AND MORE Links to many glacier sites Alaska -- Glacier Bay Alaska -- Other Glaciers Glacier Discussion  at PBS, Journey to Planet Earth Glaciers Rephotographed by the US Geological Survey Online Glacier Photograph Database Switzerland Three Benchmark Glaciers World View of Global Warming Changes in Glaciers in the Denali area including Kahiltna

IF YOU GO OUT WALKING ON A GLACIER, YOU STAND A FAIR CHANCE OF FALLING INTO A CREVASSE, ONE OF THOSE CRACKS DOWN THERE ON WEST TWIN GLACIER.  THAT IS WAY DOWN THERE, SO THEY ARE ACTUALLY BIG.  AND OFTEN COVERED WITH A LITTLE SNOW THAT YOU COULD FALL THROUGH.  THAT IS WHY THEY TOLD US NOT TO WANDER AWAY ON THAT PLANE TRIP UP AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE.